Foods + Dishes Left Behind

The foods and dishes in this post were popular all across the USA from the late 1800’s through the early 1990’s, but have been pretty much left behind. What I mean by this is, we do not often see these foods in restaurants, or on our home dining tables anymore. There are exceptions however, as some of these dishes are still alive in specific, and mostly Southern states. See if your favorite is on the list.

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Ambrosia Salad

Ambrosia Salad was first referenced in a cookbook in 1867. But recipes started appearing in media and cookbooks all over the country in the late 1920s, and increased dramatically in the 1930s. It is a uniquely USA dish that combined fruit (pineapple, oranges or tangerines, Maraschino cherries), with coconut or marshmallows, and a creamy sauce (whipped cream, Cool Whip, mayo, yogurt, etc.).

There are many recipes on line for you to look at, and they can vary widely. TasteAtlas writes that ambrosia first started to appear in the late 19th century, when citrus fruit became more available, and today it is regularly prepared during the Christmas festivities in the American South due to ingredients which were once thought of as luxurious and exotic.

This is backed up by SeriousEats: Though not as ubiquitous as it once was, for many Southerners ambrosia is a traditional Christmas-time dish, a fixture of family gatherings and restaurant buffets.

So while this dish has left the national consciousness, it remains an important and recognizable dish in Southern Cuisine.

• I first had this dish about 8 years ago while attending a dinner in Florida, with my spouse’s family. We had all gathered at their parents house, after their mother’s death. A sombre work day, boxing up the house, followed with a large family meal. We all sat around the dining room with a table full of various food dishes.
• Margaret, my sister-in-law, made an ambrosia salad and, being new to me, I took only a small sample. To be truthful, I thought it was pretty good, but a bit too sweet for my taste. However, I was unaware then of its place in Southern Cuisine and its tie to Southern traditions; looking back, I should have been more appreciative of her dish.

Aspic

It used to be that Thanksgiving holiday leftovers were turned into aspic, a meat gelatin containing a mix of white and dark chopped turkey. (Some made fish aspic, pork, etc.) This was popular during the 1930s, a time of economic and food crisis. What made aspic so nutritionally important was that it was relatively cheap to make, yet rich in amino acids and nutrients, and a great source of collagen which helps bone, teeth and joint health.

I have actually never seen this dish, outside of old photos.

Baked Alaska

I have never had this dish, have you? I have heard it in old movies but have never seen it myself. I read this dish is an ice cream cake that is coated in a shell of meringue, and baked in the oven, in part so the meringue is crispy and browned at its tips.

Congealed Salads

The European medieval concept of congealed salads was to add a variety of food into a gelatin mixture, and set in a fancy mold. The dish would then be placed at the main table as a centerpiece at feasts. The details in creating this dish were vast, starting with using cow’s feet to create the gelatin. At that time, because this dish was so labor intensive, only the elite could afford to serve this dish.

• This grossed out my spouse, and I felt compelled to say that when we consume any form of bone broth, animal parts are used to make the liquid more gelatin. So this cooking method is still with us.

The USA congealed salads were eaten from the 1700’s onward, and contained all sorts of fruits and veggies, or even fish or meats. The “high society“ families who could afford paid servants or who had enslaved workers who did the work, made this dish, as a way to show status (1).

In 1897, a more instant type of gelatin was created, so the cost and time of making these dishes were lowered, and the dish then became popular with the masses. However, over time, the savory gelatin dish started to die out; at the same time Americans started to use gelatin for a sweet desert dish. Right now, Jell-O enclosed fruit dishes are still served in parts of the midwest, south, and, according to SeriousEats, in areas where Mormons live. However, it is not a nationally and widely available dish.

• I have to admit, whenever I go to the Women’s Faculty Club (WFC) at UC Berkeley for lunch, I tend to always get their buffet. The reason is that they serve a Jell-O mold that has a variety of colors and textures, and I love it. It is the only place I regularly eat Jell-O these days, and is the only place where I have seen it served. (For transparency, I should note I was a member of the Board and Treasurer of the WFC for ~13 years, ending 2020.)

So again, while this food has dissapeared from national consciouseness, it has remained a part of Southern cuisine (2), and shows up here or there in special places.

Cottage Cheese

Cottage cheese has been around since the Colonial era. It became very popular during the 1950’s up to the 70’s. During that time, people ate up to 5# of it per year, and included it in a variety of recipes. Now folks are eating 2.1# per year. Some commenters speak about the drop in cottage cheese consumption crosses with the increase in yogurt consumption.

• I like cottage cheese, its texture and rather bland taste. But I have to admit, I add fresh fruit when I do eat it. I also use cottage cheese in my cooking when I do not have ricotta on hand. But these days I only eat it a couple times a year.

Fondue

BBC writes, In the late 17^th Century, a Swiss cookbook, Kochbuch der Anna Margaretha Gessner, makes note of cooking cheese with wine. Others say peasants in the Swiss mountains created the dish as a way to make use of leftover bread and cheese during colder months when fresh produce was scarce.We know this dish is not as popular as before, given the number of fondue pots showing up in secondhand stores (3).

• Personally, I like fondue, especially on a cold night, with friends and family, and with a glass of wine. But it is rich, highly caloric, and not something I would eat often.The last time I had a cheese fondue was in the 70’s, I ate some chocolate fondue at a special event in the 90’s (dipping large strawberries in a cascade of dark chocolate), but have not seen it since.

Frank n’ Beans

It used to be, that this 1950-1960’s dish was part of every American picnic or served as part of summer dinners. It was taken so seriously, that there were lots of recipes printed in many magazines and newspapers all across the nation.

• In fact, one of the dishes my spouse makes, is a family variation of frank-n-beans. This dish contains cans of baked beans topped with hot dogs sliced and stuffed with a mixture of onions, mustard, ketchup, and brown sugar. Then baked and served.

Hot dogs have not gone away, but serving them in a pot of bean has mostly disappeared. Instead, we have moved to chili + cheese smothered hot dogs.

Meatloaf

This dish was first (basically) mentioned in the 5th Century Rome, but then in the late 1800s the domestic meat grinder was invented, so ground meats made from leftover cuttings or tougher cuts of meat became more of an everyday possibility. During the 1930s, again a time of hunger, Americans added veggies, bread (panada) and anything else they could add to make cheaper food that filled the bellies. It continued changing and meeting the American needs through the 1950’s until 1990’s. But then it started to drop off the nation‘s table.

• Okay, okay, I have got a meatloaf story. My spouse and I were on vacation at a coastal getaway and went to one of their swanky restaurants. They were having a discount night where they sold cheaper basic Americana meals (salmon, spaghetti, or meatloaf) with dessert at a lower than usual price. When we received our dish, and I had ordered meatloaf, I thought the smell of the loaf seemed off. And then I put a forkful in my mouth. OMG it was one of the worst foods I have ever eaten at a restaurant, it tasted bitterly moldy.
• Then I asked my spouse to taste it to see if it was just me, and nope, it was the food. Then I took another bite to try to figure out what the heck was going on. By the fourth bite the loaf was gone; and I was gagging, yet still unable to figure out what they did wrong. Later I figured out the junior cook probably mixed up the fresh Vs dried amounts of oregano, for I realized it tasted like a mouthful of dried oregano which can have a bitter, moldy, earthy taste.

Ground beef consumption has not gone down over the last few years, so why is this meat-based loaf not popular as before? MyHeartSisters writes Meat loaf is an old-fashioned dinner that now makes hipsters sneer, nutritionists groan, and vegans turn even more pale than usual.  And like a lot of home cooking, it takes a bit of effort to whip up, so busy people doing Very Important Things believe they simply do not have time to make it. Goodbye, homemade meat loaf. 

Offal

I was watching a show on food served at historical delis on the East Coast, and it mentioned that many Jewish delis have had to change, as time goes by, for what people once ate regularly, they are now skipping. This includes: liver and onions, steak and kidney pie, tripe, heart, and sometimes even heads, cheek meats, and brains.

During a time when no one could afford to waste meat, think 20’s – 30’s, everything from the beef cattle was used. Times have changed and Americans appear specifically, more squeamish about animal parts than other countries.

There are 3 main arguments about why Americans do not eat offal. (1) Some bloggers believe it is related to Americans divorce of meat from the animal. The argument is that we have sanitized meats and the processing of animals, keeping it hidden and not discussed. A package of ground meat is not clearly understood as a ground dairy cow. So eating something easily recognized confronts that reality. (2) Others argue that eating these meats trigger an aversion to cannibalism. The idea is that when given a head, intestines, heart, liver or kidney etc., it looks so much like our own organs there is a revulsion based on feelings of cannibalistically eating our own bodies. This idea also relies on our intense separation of what we eat to the animals we are eating. (3) Others add that offal is considered “poor people’s” food and no one wants to be known as “those people” who are so desperate, they will even eat that kind of meat.

I read that many Paleo-diet supporters have been pushing offal’s high protein content, but it’s a hard sell. While I do not see a return to offal eating anytime soon, what is so funny, is that hot dogs and other sausages can and do contain the offal that no one wants to know they are eating.

• I have eaten offal dishes, most often in Europe. Heck, even my favorite Liverwurst is made from liver, but I do not like fried liver and onions despite my Oma’s attempts.

Salisbury Steak

This USA dish originated in 1897, and is made with ground beef (or beef + pork mix), mushrooms, and other veggies, and served covered with a brown gravy. It was a regular dish served to soldiers during the American Civil War (4).

• I decided one weekend to make Salisbury Steak, which I thought tasted real good, full of umami; but was told that this was a dish of our mother’s time, and suggested I not post the recipe. Further, I learned this dish was the “mystery meat” dish I had heard used on movies, and this was a popular TV dinner (5). But what was wrong with it?

I learned that the food served in schools (6) and in TV dinners (7) were not the highest grade of minced (or ground) meat and did not always taste good. There are generations of kids who have eaten this less than desirable dish. Proof that quality ingredients are necessary to creating good dishes.

Banana1015 wrote in 2018: Over 135,159 lbs of Banquet Salisbury Steaks have been recalled and the most unbelievable part is that, in 2018, people are still eating enough Salisbury Steak for there to be that much of it in circulation.

Sloppy Joes

A cook named Joe (Maid-Rite location in Sioux City, Iowa) created the sloppy joe, a mix of tomato sauce, onions, with ground beef. This dish was populer from the 1940’s through to the 70’s (8). It was a cheap food if home made, that could be quickly served in fast food or lunch counter joints; put a toasted bun on a plate and pull a ladle full of the hamburger sauce from a big pot, and serve. Then it was available in a can, Manwich, that made it even easier to serve.

• I remember having this dish a time or two when we lived in Washington state. I liked the flavor and burger-quality of eating it, but it was never filling by itself. Plus it was very messy to eat which my mom did not appreciate.

It seems that sometime in the 80’s this dish disappeared from the restaurants, and home dinner tables.

Tapioca Pudding

The Minute Tapioca Company was formed in 1894 in Boston, but the pudding had been around for a while. There is no tapioca plant, tapioca comes from processed cassava root (also known as manioc, yuca). There is a report of Native Peoples using the plant root in 1875’s Cassell’s Dictionary of Cookery. But, cassava is a native American plant (9) and is known to be poisonous, unless properly prepared. Despite written records, it was domesticated thousands of years ago in Brazil, and it spread all over the Americas from there.

This dish in its heyday in the 1930’s, it can be served plain or topped with a berry sauce (raspberry, strawberry, etc.). This pudding takes a bit of time to make, and people in a hurry often make it incorrectly, so it has become known as a difficult dish to make. But what works, is that this starch is easily digested so it is good for babies, the sick and elderly, but it is not nutritious and does not contain any protein, all starch.

• Okay, I have to admit that while I am not a “sweet person” (I am more the savory type), I love tapioca pudding and make it a couple of times a year. I always have a package of tapioca in my pantry because there are times when nothing else will ease my sweet tooth. Tapioca, mixed with milk, egg, vanilla, and sugar.

And, while Tapioca Pudding may not be eaten as much as before, we are eating more Tapioca pearls than ever. FoodGuys write, Boba pearls may be considered a variety of tapioca crystals as they are technically the same as them but with added brown sugar (as syrup or added in the dough for boba balls).

Tuna Fish

Insider writes that consumers purchase of canned tuna has dropped 42% in the three decades up until 2016. The thoughts are that all the talk about mercury in tuna fish, and the accidental killing of dolphins when tuna fishing, has lowered its sales, as well as the changing habits of our kids.

• I always have a tin or two on hand so that I can make a quick meal if needed. The pandemic forced my hand and I have two tins in my pantry, next to the tins of sardines, trout, and salmon.

I expect sales went up during the pandemic as people rushed to the stores to buy canned meat and fish, as well as other canned and processed foods. The real question is will this continue?

TV Dinners

Swanson created (actually bacteriologist Betty Cronin) TV Dinners in the 1950’s and they have created a very large number of frozen dinner companies. Swanson sold millions of dinners until 2008, when sales started to fall off (10). People seem to be turning away from pre-made, frozen dinners.

• I remember when we came to the USA, in the 1960’s, someone served us a chicken TV Dinner, it had mashed potato, gravy, corn, and some kind of sweet apple dessert. I enjoyed the food, but my mom did not like the idea of us eating this weird food (although she did like how quick it was).

At some point, the traditional chicken or salisbury steak TV Dinners moved into two divisions; one was the creation of diet-specific frozen foods (Lean Cuisine, Jenny Craig, etc.) and cuisine specific foods (lots of mexican and italian meals). Frozen food is not going away, but it continues to change as consumers tastes vary over time.

It should be noted that frozen dinners, and any frozen foods, have seen an increase in sales due to the pandemic. I expect this too will be temporary, but time will tell. If you are like me, you did not buy lots of frozen meals, but instead you purchased lots of bags of frozen veggies and fruits, meats and fish, and frozen Asian dumplings with which to make my own meals.

Salutation

Wonder how many of the items I listed above you still prepare and eat. I still eat a few of these items, not often, but I do not turn them down when offered (except for aspic). Are there other dishes you think should be added? Let me know.

—Patty

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News: Tapioca is made from cassava root also known as manioc or yuca. Cassava, In February 2020, The Bangkok Post quoted the president of the Thai Tapioca Trade Association as saying, “… widespread drought is expected to cut tapioca production in the 2020/2021 crop year by 10-20 percent.” Drought, coupled with staff shortages because of COVID-19, has slowed production of tapioca.

Analysis: (Chopped sections from this post.) What seems to stand as a barrier between American menus and offal (organ) meats is cultural taboo. Consumers in the U.S. are “distanced from the animal-ness of meat.” Looking at ground meats is not like looking at actual kidneys, hearts, tongues and liver which can remind us of parts of ourself. This personalization makes eating those parts of an animal seem like cannibalism. Americans do not like to anthropomorphize our food.